Islam in the News

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” –

Blaise Pascal(philosopher and mathematician 1623-1662).The News-Journal

- Sept 24, 1997

Algiers, Algeria

. – Massacre leaves more than 200 dead near Algiers,Algeria. Brutal Killings belie government assurances. Attackers with machine guns, firebombs and knivesinvaded a neighborhood out side the Algerian capital and methodically killed scores of men, women andchildren in one of the worst episodes in nearly six years of political bloodshed by Islamic insurgents. Althoughthe government reported 85 people killed, medical workers, gravediggers and eye witnesses said they countedmore than 200 bodies in the suburb of Baraki, just south of Algiers…Large groups of armed men attack at night,often close to police and military barracks. They appear able to carry out horrendous murders undisturbed, thenmelt away with the daylight. …the incidents are reported in newspapers – but frequently are not confirmed bythe government… Meanwhile, the scale of death has spiraled. A few months ago, when attackers were hittingisolated villages, a raid might have left several dozen people dead. But in the past two months, massacres havemoved into greater Algiers, and death tolls have risen correspondingly. On Aug. 29, in what was apparently theworst single massacre of the insurgency, about 300 people were slaughtered in Rais, a village 15 kilometersfrom the capital. Tuesday’s massacre occurred less than 48 hours after Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia appearedon national television Sunday to announce that because of “the increased vigilance of the population, thedetermination of the security forces and the end of political bargaining, the country now faces only residualterrorism.” He proclaimed. Those words meant little Tuesday. The heavily armed attackers arrived shortly aftermidnight surrounding the neighborhood, then systematically forced victims out of their homes, where they weregunned down or had their throats slit, according to news agency accounts. Homemade grenades and Molotovcocktails were thrown into houses, said survivors quoted by the French news agency AFP. “They even tossedchildren from the terraces,” one man said. The recent massacres have fueled demands for an intentional effort toend the conflict. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who condemned the Tuesday massacre as a ‘brutal act of terrorism”, offered three weeks ago to mediate between the government and the Islamic insurgents but wassternly rebuffed by the Algerian leadership”.

The News-Journal (AP)

–

Dec 10, 1998

Algiers, Algeria –

45 Killed in Algeria’s Latest Massacre An armedband killed 45 people in a pre-dawn attack that was the bloodiest massacre in Algeria in months, security forcessaid. Separately, authorities said they had pulled 46 bodies from a 180-foot-deep well used as a mass grave.Many more victims remain in the mass grave, which could be as much as two years old. Security forces said in astatement that Wednesday’s massacre in the mountain town of Tadjena, about 125 miles west of the capital,Algiers, was committed by a “terrorist band” – language signifying Muslim insurgents blamed for many suchmassacres in recent years. The last massacre of this magnitude was in March, when 52 people were reportedkilled at Had Sahary Youb, 150 miles southwest of the capital. In the past, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan,which starts Dec. 20 this year, has brought an increase in violence, and the trend appeared to be continuing thisyear. The massacre raised the death toll since the start of the month to at least 115 people. Meanwhile, south of the capital, in an area referred to as the “Triangle of Death,” security forces said they had dug 46 bodies from awell at a farm in Meftah, 10 miles from central Algiers. It is not known how many more people may have beenthrown into the mass grave, which specialists date to 1996 or 1997.

The Associated Press

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Mar 17, 2002

Islamabad, Pakistan –

A grenade attack on a Protestant church packedwith Sunday worshippers killed five people including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat, in anassault clearly aimed at Pakistan’s foreign community. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, in whichat least 1-2 young men in black ran through the center of the church hurling grenades. But suspicion fell onIslamic extremists. Ten Americans were among the 45 people injured, most of whom were foreigners, policeand hospitals said. The attack occurred at 10:50 a.m. during a sermon before 60 to 70 worshippers. Dozens of police and soldiers rushed to the scene. The church, about 400 yards from the U.S. Embassy, is located in theguarded diplomatic quarter in the heart of Pakistan’s capital and primarily serves the foreign community. Theoverwhelming majority of Pakistanis are Muslim and few Pakistani Christians live in Islamabad. Survivorsspoke of deafening blasts, choking smoke and pandemonium. They said terrified parents screamed for theirchildren and stunned worshippers dived beneath chairs and behind cement pillars as bits of flesh were hurledthrough the air. Parents groped to find their way downstairs, where their children were attending Sunday School.Other parishioners feared touching the wounded, because unexploded grenades lay near their bodies. “There was

blood, blood, blood, intestines lying on the floor,” said Elisabeth Mundhenk, 54, of Hamburg, Germany as sheawaited treatment for shrapnel wounds at a hospital. “It was horrific. There was a horrible smell and we couldbarely breathe.” Mark Robinson of San Clemente, Calif., who was being treated at a clinic for a minor leginjury, described “total pandemonium.” “Everyone panicked,” Robinson said. “I saw one woman on the stepswith a piece of shrapnel in her carotid artery. She bled to death right there.” The U.S. Embassy identified thedead Americans as Barbara Green and her daughter Kristen Wormsley, a senior at the American School inIslamabad. Green and her husband, Milton Green, worked at the U.S. Embassy she in administration and he inthe computer division. Milton Green and the couple’s young son were also injured but not seriously, accordingto police. In addition to the Americans, 12 Pakistanis, five Iranians, one Iraqi, one Ethiopian and one Germanwere injured, police said. The government said the injured also included Sri Lankans, Afghans, Swiss, Britons,Australians and Canadians. The kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was seen aspart of an extremist campaign to embarrass the government and undercut its support in the West. The attack wasthe 2

against Christians in Pakistan since the war on terrorism began. On Oct. 28, gunmen killed 15 Christiansand one Muslim guard in an attack on a church in the town of Behawalpur.

Associated Press

- Jul 31, 2002

Beirut, Lebanon –

A disgruntled Education Ministry employee opened fire atcolleagues at a ministry office, killing eight people and wounding five before he was apprehended by police,police officials and witnesses said. Muslim police chief Maj. Gen. Walid Koleilat claimed a financial disputewas behind the shooting, and dismissed any sectarian motives. But others, noting the gunman was Muslim andhis victims Christian, questioned whether religious divisions contributed to the violence. Koleilat said thegunman, who had worked for the fund for 23 years, went methodically through offices, shooting. Some of thevictims ran out onto a balcony to escape the gunfire, but the gunman shot through the windows, killing two,whose bodies rested on the edge of the railing. Mansour’s family said he worked as a clerk and “fixer,” a termused for people who help cut through red tape at government ministries in return for a tip. He is married withfour children. As news of the shooting reached Mansour’s village of Loubieh in south Lebanon, relatives andfriends gathered at the family house for support. His wife, Mona Khalil, cried out: “This is a catastrophe. … Ican’t believe Ahmed would do something like this.” She said Mansour is a diabetic who also took tranquilizers.The building housing the fund is a few hundred yards from the main Education Ministry compound and acrossthe street from the literature department of Lebanese University. About 200 police sealed the area.About 20 relatives waiting outside wept as the bodies were being removed from the scene nearly three hoursafter the attack. They wailed whenever a body was carried out and tried to rush through the police cordon toremove the sheet to identify the victim. Colleagues of the gunman who were in the building at the time of theshooting said the 43-year-old man arrived at midmorning armed with two pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle.He went to the third floor, where the teachers’ compensation fund has its offices and began shooting. Onewitness, a government worker who refused to give his name, said after the gunman ran out of ammunition, hedropped his weapons, walked down the stairs and lit a cigarette. At about the same time, police arrived at thescene and arrested him. Koleilat, the police chief, told reporters at the scene that the attacker tried to concealhimself by mixing in the crowd but later tried to run. The police chief dismissed concerns that the attack mayhave been sectarian-motivated. “It is tragic. It was personal and isolated. We hope that no one makes of thisincident more than its isolated nature,” he said. But George Saade, the Christian head of the teachers’ unionwhose daughter-in-law was among the dead, was yelling outside the building: “He killed the Christianemployees. How can we live in this country?” Muslim Education Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad, who rushed tothe scene, said money was the reason behind the shooting. Murad said the gunman was angry that thecompensation fund sought repayment of a loan of $12,000 he had taken earlier. “They asked him to sell his car,he sold it, got upset and consequently came and committed his crime,” Murad said.

The Associated Press

–

Aug 01, 2002

Newark, N.J. –

A Jersey City man charged with killing his pregnant wife,mother-in-law and sister-in-law was arrested by Canadian authorities as he tried to cross the border into Canada,officials said. A fugitive warrant for the arrest of Alim Hassan issued by the Hudson County prosecutor’s officeindicated there had been a dispute over his desire that his wife convert to Islam, according to Lt. Larry Baehre of the Buffalo, N.Y., police department, which took custody of Hassan from the Canadians. “The warrant said thathe and his wife had previous disputes that she convert to the Muslim religion,” Baehre said. The victims wereHindu, he said. Hassan, 31, was taken off a Greyhound bus after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police receivedan anonymous phone call Tuesday evening, said Edward J. DeFazio, the Hudson County Prosecutor. The callerwarned that a man who had stabbed the three women to death in their Jersey City home earlier in the day was

headed to Toronto from New York City, DeFazio said. On Tuesday morning, Bernadette Seajatan, 49, and herdaughters, Sharon Yassim, 30, and Marlyn Hassan, 29, who was married to the defendant, were found dead inthe house they shared on Fox Place with their husbands and Yassim’s two sons. The two boys, ages 3 and 6,discovered the bloody bodies of their mother, aunt and grandmother, after the three men had left the houseTuesday morning.

The Associated Press

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Aug 05, 2002

Islamabad, Pakistan –

Five unidentified gunmen stormed the gates of aChristian school in a popular mountain resort Monday, killing at least six people and wounding two othersbefore escaping.

The attack occurred at the Murree Christian School in Murree Hills, about 35 miles north of Islamabad in the Himalayan foothills. The school was founded in 1956 to train the children of missionaries hereand in neighboring countries. A statement by the school said there had been “several deaths and injuries”.Federal officials in Islamabad said they did not know the identities or the motive of the attackers. The dead wereidentified as two security guards, two school employees, one unknown person and a retired teacher who was atthe school to collect his pension. It was the third fatal attack against Christian institutions in this predominantlyMuslim country since President Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war against terrorism last year. Sixteenpeople were killed in October when gunmen opened fire on a Protestant congregation in the city of Behawalpur.

The Associated Press

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Aug 9 2002

Taxila, Pakistan –

Three attackers hurled grenades Friday at womenleaving a church on the grounds of a Presbyterian hospital in Pakistan, killing three nurses and wounding 23 inthe second attack this week against Christians. The attack is the latest in a series of terrorist incidents here sincePakistani President Pervez Musharraf sided with the United States against the Afghan Taliban, outragingextremists. Police said they believed the attack in Taxila, 25 miles northwest of Islamabad, was linked to anassault four days ago against a school for children of Christian missionaries in which six Pakistanis were killed.“It is clear that terrorists are targeting the Christian community in Pakistan,” said S.K. Tressler, the governmentminister in charge of minority affairs. Chief investigator Raja Mumtaz Ahmad told The Associated Press thatthe attackers wanted to kill Christians or Westerners to express anger over Pakistan’s support for the U.S.-ledwar against terrorism. The attack occurred as worshippers were leaving a church on the hospital grounds,according to Dr. Ernest Lall, a former hospital director who was in the church. The service was attended mostlyby women and children, and women traditionally exit first. Doctors said 23 people, mostly female nurses, werewounded and two were in serious condition. Three men had been waiting by the hospital gates for the dailymorning service to end before they struck, according to police at the scene in Taxila, 12 miles west of the capitalIslamabad. S.K. Tressler, a Christian who is Muslim Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs, told Reuters thedead assailant was shot by an accomplice after being wrestled to the ground by a hospital worker, possibly toprevent him revealing the group’s identity. His account was based on police information. “I was still inside thechurch when I heard explosions,” said staff member Margif Tariq. “Windowpanes were falling on us, everyonewas crying, everyone was in pain. … When I came out, I saw dozens of women were lying on the pavement andmost of them were bleeding.” The hospital, which is supported by the Presbyterian Church USA and thePresbyterian Church of Pakistan, was founded in 1922 and treats mostly poor Muslim patients. “We have beenhere since 1922, and someone throws a bomb,” Lall said. “I don’t know why. It is somebody who must beagainst Christianity. We never thought we would be a target like that.” Shah, the regional police commander,said he believed the assailants were linked to the Murree shootings because the attacker who died was wearingclothing similar to that of the school attackers. One day after the Murree attack, three men believed to havecarried out the school raid blew themselves up with grenades after being stopped by police in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Before killing themselves, the three men in Kashmir admitted to attacking the school andwarned that other groups like them “plan to carry out similar attacks on Americans and nonbelievers, and youwill soon hear about it,” Shah said. Extremists have vowed revenge against both Musharraf and his Westernsupporters since the Pakistani government broke with the Taliban and began a crackdown on hard-line Islamicgroups. “If immediate steps are not taken by authorities to provide protection to Christians, I fear that it will leadto the start of genocide in Pakistan,” said Shahbaz Bhaddi, leader of the All-Pakistan Minorities Alliance. InOctober, 16 people were killed in an attack on a Christian church in Behawalpur, a city in south-centralPakistan.

The Associated Press

– Aug 12, 2002

Islamabad, Pakistan –

A man in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahoreallegedly killed his wife and four children because he suspected her of adultery, police and residents said.Investigators said Mohammed Sadiq was taken into custody and that unspecified weapons were seized. The fourchildren were between 7 and 14 years old, police said. Hundreds of women and children in Pakistan are killed